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    Die A Little
    Die A Little
    Die A Little
    Audiobook6 hours

    Die A Little

    Written by Megan Abbott

    Narrated by Ellen Archer

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook


    How does a respectable young woman fall into Los Angeles' hard-boiled underworld?

    Shadow-dodging through the glamorous world of 1950s Hollywood and its seedy flip side, Megan Abbott's debut, Die a Little, is a gem of the darkest hue. This ingenious twist on a classic noir tale tells the story of Lora King, a schoolteacher, and her brother Bill, a junior investigator with the district attorney's office. Lora's comfortable, suburban life is jarringly disrupted when Bill falls in love with a mysterious young woman named Alice Steele, a Hollywood wardrobe assistant with a murky past.

    Made sisters by marriage but not by choice, the bond between Lora and Alice is marred by envy and mistrust. Spurred on by inconsistencies in Alice's personal history and possibly jealous of Alice's hold on her brother, Lora finds herself lured into the dark alleys and mean streets of seamy Los Angeles. Assuming the role of amateur detective, she uncovers a shadowy world of drugs, prostitution, and ultimately, murder.

    Lora's fascination with Alice's "sins" increases in direct proportion to the escalation of her own relationship with Mike Standish, a charmingly amoral press agent who appears to know more about his old friend Alice than he reveals. The deeper Lora digs to uncover Alice's secrets, the more her own life begins to resemble Alice's sinister past - and present.

    Steeped in atmospheric suspense and voyeuristic appeal, Die a Little shines as a dark star among Hollywood lights.

    "Ellen Archer takes Meghan Abbott's stylish exercise in noir and delivers a dynamite performance." -AudioFile Magazine
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 1, 2005
    ISBN9781400171514
    Die A Little
    Author

    Megan Abbott

    Megan Abbott is an award-winning author of noir fiction including Queenpin and Bury Me Deep (nominated for the Edgar Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize). Her novel The End of Everything was a Richard and Judy selection and Dare Me was shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger. She is also the author of the gripping psychological thrillers, The Fever and You Will Know Me. She is co-writer of the smash-hit Sky Atlantic drama, The Deuce. Born in the Detroit area, she now lives in Queens, New York City.

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    Reviews for Die A Little

    3.5/5

    129 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The 1950s seems to be an idealized era, full of change and promise; some would say it was a simpler time. Veterans were settling down to desk jobs, marrying, and raising families of their own. Women's fashion, technology, and the entertainment world were swerving in a new direction. Everyone seemed to be generally prospering and there was relative peace. That's the world that Lora, a twenty-something school teacher, and her brother Bill live in: a serene, quiet existence in West Pasadena.The day Alice Steele careens into Bill's life, Lora can't help but feel that life as they know it will never be the same again. Alice has been places, knows things, and as she digs her heels into Bill's heart, she brings along friends from her old life in Hollywood and seedy Los Angeles. How bad can she be? Just you wait!I really enjoyed this book! After finding James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia gripping but too dark for my liking, I found Abbott to be just the right balance. The female perspective was nice, but like Gillian Flynn, she doesn't hold any punches. Things get pretty gritty, so hold on your hats and short laced gloves!
    • 3/5
      A noir debut set in 1950’s Hollywood with a sister, Lora, having suspicions of her brother’s new wife, Alice, not being quite who she seemed. When suspicious characters start materialising into their life and inconsistencies in Alice’s story then maybe it’s time for Lora to find out what’s really going on.This is an incredibly slow-paced story with about 90% of the book being setup until the final rushed ending. Although the writing was good and the setting quite atmospheric and evocative of the time period I just wanted something to actually happen. The character’s though are a little flat and I cared little about who would or wouldn’t make it to the end. All this being said, I did finish it as I still wanted to find out what happened in the end and won’t be giving up on the author as I know she is highly rated and this was just her debut effort.
    • 4/5
      The racy cover with it’s exaggerated tag line could easily lead one to believe that Die A Little by Megan Abbott actually is a 1950s pulp thriller, but this is actually a modern written noir story that has captured the flavor of the sleazy side of 1950s Hollywood.Schoolteacher Lora is dismayed at the woman her brother has chosen to marry. Alice is a show-stopping, knowledgeable firecracker of a woman. Lora does not trust her and as she gets to know her and sees a bit of where she came from, her uneasiness grows. Yes, Lora comes across as slightly jealous and obsessed with her brother, but that only adds to the air of corruption that surrounds this story. Alice comes from the underbelly of Hollywood, having worked as a wardrobe assistant, but it is her shady past that she seems to be dragging Lora into. Megan Abbott excels at writing noir and this book, her debut novel, has captured the darkness that gives this story it’s edge. A story of drugs, prostitutes and murder with tough guys and even tougher dames, Die A Little, was an enjoyable read that gives us more than a hint of what is to come from this author.
    • 2/5
      This book takes forever to get anywhere, which is pretty unforgivable for this genre. The narrator is the sister of a police detective working for the LA DA's office, who becomes suspicious of the background of his new wife, whom he met when she ran her car into his. The lack of real characterization is a severe problem here, as we don't get a lot of insight into anyone other than the wife, who is some sort of model 1950s (when this is set) housewife who can decorate for a party and whip up a few dozen dishes in a jiffy. She even gets a job teaching home economics at the same high school as the narrator! It's all a bit too much. But the author does excel at these domestic details. There is certainly a mystery here, and I managed to listen to my audiobook version (well read) until the end. The pace does heat up and things actually happen. But it is all much too unbelievable and poorly plotted. It is hard to care. And not so easy to enjoy, either. This is the first novel I've read (or listened to) by Abbott. I know she is well respected. I assume it must getter better!
    • 2/5
      One of several "noir" novels. A skilled writer but didn't care for the "chick lit" perspective. And the ending was bad - didn't tie up even a fraction of what was going on. Probably won't read others.
    • 4/5
      I don't normally choose "modern noir" or "hardboiled" books, but I read a story by Megan Abbott in a collection (In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper) and liked that story enough to try one of her books. Die A Little was written well, I could "see" it in my mind and I liked the characters. It was a pretty fast read and enjoyable enough that I will try another of Abbott's books.
    • 1/5
      Gossipy book about a sister, who is drawn into the circle of associates of her sil. Really shallow characters, little story line.
    • 4/5
      School teacher Lora and her cop brother, Bill, live in L.A. and only have each other. Then Bill meets Alice and they marry so quickly that Lora barely has time to get used to Alice before becoming suspicious of her low-rent friend who is always bruised, and the work credentials that never appear. Lora takes on the job of digging through Alice's past because her brother is too much in love to see that something isn't right.L.A. noir set in the 50's and done so well. At first it seems like Lora is just an over-protective sister, or, a sister who is jealous of losing her brother to his new wife, but the story that unfolds gets quite juicy.
    • 4/5
      Megan Abbot's "Die A Little" brings back the 1950's and a mystery in the mode of Raymond Chandler.Lora King, a school teacher, has a close relationship to her brother, Bill, a young investigator in the DA's office.Bill meets a mystery woman named Alice and they marry soon after.Lora gets to know Alice and becomes suspicious when some of the things she says about her past don't add up.Alice introduces Lora to a good time woman named Lois and the three woman share adventures with Lora becoming fascinated in the lives of the other women while still maintaining a protective attitude of her brother and the mysterious woman he married.The setting is in the Hollywood area with scenes at movie studios and minor people from the films. It's a story that will capture most reader's attention right from the start.The reader will like Lora and her mystery solving activity. There was also some excellent surprises which add to the entertainment of the novel.
    • 1/5
      DIE A LITTLE is the first in a series of books frm Megan Abbott flagged somewhat unhelpfully as "modern noir". I'm not at all sure what that should imply in terms of expectation, but whatever caused it, something didn't really work about this book for me.Leaving aside the fact that the cover is absolutely wonderful and the title is glorious, the style very atmospheric and the build up interesting (woman with a "past" who marries a cop, cop's sister smells a rat, digs), something about the delivery of this story simply flat out didn't hold my interest. I suspect part of this is because the "sister" whose viewpoint is paramount, didn't seem to fit with the noir stylings. For a while I wondered if the "bad girl" telling the story, might have helped, but ultimately I think the problem was partially the complete lack of suspense. Noir can be predictable to my mind, but it shouldn't be flat. It shouldn't drone on leaving a feeling of impatience for the damn thing to get to the point.I suspect part of the problem really was that the focus on the sister's viewpoint isn't supported by her being a character that you can get involved with. It wasn't too long before I was forced into thinking I'd be on side of the bad girl wife, regardless of the question.
    • 4/5
      Why: I greatly enjoyed the only other book of Abbott's that I've read, Queenpin.This book has a lovely, lovely pulp cover.It is set in what seems to be 1950s L.A., and the story concerns the narrator, Lora, a schoolteacher probably in her late twenties, and a brother to whom she is extremely close, a fast-rising police detective named Bill. Equilibrium is upset when Bill marries the vivacious, mysterious Alice, who is not what she seems. Lora's own dark nature is exposed to her when she is willingly drawn into the world of Alice's dark past. This book was deftly done: the story gradually sheds its layers, as much as by what Lora doesn’t say as by what she does. And similarly the characters remove their coverings to reveal what is truest about them. Perhaps none of them are what they seem. I love Abbott's spin on hard-boiled prose, of which I’d love to give an example, but I don’t have the book handy. Maybe later.
    • 4/5
      The King family, Lora the schoolteacher and her brother Bill a policeman had always lived together, a peaceful co-existence, and together they were a team. That is, until Alice Steele almost crashed her car into his. And from that point on Bill was a goner: he and Alice decide to marry just 5 months later. Right from the start, Lora feels that Alice is not to be trusted, that there is something rotten underneath the bright and breezy, glamorous façade. Alice has been a Hollywood wardrobe assistant, but Lora gets her a job as a home economics teacher at the school she herself teaches at. This should give them a chance to get to know each other better, but Lora becomes increasingly suspicious of what Alice does, especially after she disappears during the school day. Finally Alice's true colours emerge, and now it is not a question of Bill looking out for Lora as he's done all of his life, but of her saving him. This book has been classified by some as modern noir. Set in 1950s Hollywood, its setting and style both evoke a period that we rarely encounter in a modern novel. And yet this is Megan Abbott's debut.
    • 5/5
      Megan Abbott is my new favorite writer. I love this book even more than the excellent QUEENPIN, her latest. Simply put she is the finest author of contemporary noir I've come across, and her singular skill is plumbing the depths of complex, wounded, hungry women characters, all the way to the dark and silty bottom and beyond.There is one big flaw in both this book and her last, though it took a friend to point it out to me, and that's why I didn't give it five stars: without giving the ending away, the heroine does not in my mind complete her arc. The heroine's journey is unfulfilled...the fundament does not shift....Oh, Christ, what I'm trying to say is that she doesn't kill the bad guy. Any of them. I think that's a serious omission. I don't understand MA's decision, and I have yet to read THE SONG IS YOU, but I'll be looking for a more satisfying denoument.Okayyy, back to what I love: NO ONE describes longing as exquisitely as MA. No one makes the dark places of the soul look as familiar as she does - it is impossible to resist these characters, no matter how far off the rails they go. And it's *far*: in this case there are incestual passions, ravenous sexual hungers, the lure of and anaesthetizing powers of drugs, and the wholesale forsaking of honor and principle.Most fascinating is the deliberate and unapologetic - in fact, practically gleeful - job of peeling back the narrators layers by her sister-in-law, until everything perfumed and pretty is gone, and a shocking core is revealed. You cannot read this without being convinced that there are surprises at the core of just about everyone.MA also does a superb job of slowly lifting the curtains on what is *really* going on in the rather complex plot. Some readers probably get it immediately; I'm one of those who often end up going "Huh?" at the end. So I appreciated the measured, tension-sustaining pace at which bits of the story are revealed, so one's arrival at the end of the story coincides with the piecing together, finally, of what *really* happened.Not sure about the book's physical format/cover. Same as Eddie Muller's noir books, and it looks like the same artist, too. It's wonderfully retro but I worry that it might turn some readers off (myself included; I only found Abbott and Muller through recommendations).Some favorite lines from this book:"His eyes, glossy dark like brine, fixed and waiting.""She stared at him with eyes like bullet holes, stared at him like she'd never seen him before, and he felt his blood pulsing, the vein in his neck singing. She wasn't just a B-girl, she was carrying the whole ugly world in her eyes."